Chapter 57.3- And so the Dragons Danced

“Now what do you really think?” He asked with a smile that was not unkind. She felt pushed to honesty, like she could tell this man anything and that was a dangerous position to be in when the person in question was the Emperor of the United Nations.

“I think that you could do with a few internal plants.” She said, and to her shock, he started to laugh.. It was not a subtle thing. It was a loud boisterous laugh that drew attention to them and their position. Anyone else would have shrank under the weight of so many stares. Her dance partner? He turned and met each pair of eyes himself.

“Blame Toji for that one. He’s insistent that having plants here would be a ready source of water for any prospective waterbending assassins to use.” he said, making the admission with a shrug. What she was quickly beginning to learn was that the Emperor was the sort to say the quiet part out loud and more or less expect you to do the same.

“Well, he’s right. Is that why the air is so dry up here? To deter waterbenders?” She asked.

“To some extent, yes. The truth is. That we just haven’t been able to figure out mechanical air conditioning without water bender utilization to cool the room while retaining its humidity. It gets lost in the bleed, so we take it as the happy coincidence it is.”

“Why specifically without water bender help? You have both the water tribes loyal to you, I can’t imagine there’s any scarcity in that regard.”

“It comes down to a thing of demand, to be honest. If you look at the demographics you’d find that the water tribes have the lowest ender populations. And then there’s the demand. Everyone and their mother wants, or as they claim, needs a waterbending healer and it’s not like it’s safe to say no to all of them. Piss enough people off and the Empire stops running. When I was younger, I’d have shortened the lot of them by a head and moved on, but that’s no way to rule”

“Well, good thing you’re no longer randomly killing people, then”

“Yes. Now I only kill people who deserve it. Now, answer me Korra— are you in on it?” He asked, smile turning sharp as he spun her around the room.

“In on what?” She felt her throat begin to constrict. Not from anything he was doing— not overtly at least, but from the weight of his stare.

“I believe you” He said instead of answering her question as he smiled.

Then the whole world changed as he pulled her closer to him before executing a perfect backflip with her form pressed agains his chest. He lifted her like she weighed nothing as he jumped over a watery tendril that hardened to ice right as it had been about to hit him.

“What the hell?” She found herself asking but if she expected a reply then she did not get one. The Emperor gently placed her on the ground before stepping towards the aggressor, a woman with no physical hands but watery tendrils in their place. There was a movement to the side of the Emperor and his son stepped in the way faster than she had ever seen anyone move. He braced himself and the air shivered around his combustion bending tattoo. It met something else in the air and the both of them exploded, nearly blinding much of the hall.

“Step off, Shinra. If you ruin this for me, you’ll be grounded for a year”

“I’m too old for that, Dad” said son replied with a chuckle even as he stepped to the side.